No Better Time To Tell the Truth
by eyesofgarnet
Summary: Puck says Happy Hanukah and I love you, the only way he knows how too.


**A/N:** Not totally happy with this but whatever. I did for a drabble meme over at puckrachel on LJ. The prompt was a scene from Love Actually, I just altered it a tiny it bit to make it more Puck-Like.

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She settled. Of course she settled. When you think no one is ever really going to want you except Finn Hudson, that's what you do. And yes she loved him, sort of. It was hard for her to explain. Rachel always thought that if you loved someone you would never have to question yourself as to why you loved them. She did it constantly, especially when she was staring at the huge engagement ring Finn had placed on her just after Halloween. Her answer had escaped from her lips before she could stop herself and now here she was caught up in an engagement that didn't feel right.

Rachel remembers telling Santana a little before Thanksgiving that she had wished she had said no. Her heart just wasn't in it anymore but she couldn't bear to break Finn's heart. It's not like Prince Charming was going to show up at her doorstep to save her. That ship had sailed long ago and he was miles away, on the other side of the country, writing songs and putting out records. While she was caught here with a guy she thought she had once wanted and performing on Broadway. Half of her life dream had come true. If Noah Puckerman had ever grown the balls to get into a relationship with her than her life would be complete.

So now she's sitting on an oversized couch with Finn's arm over her shoulder watching some Christmas movie that she doesn't really understand, but has sworn she's seen a dozen times. She realizes once they get married she's going to have to understand it a lot more if they ever have children, Finn would never allow her to raise them to be strictly Jewish. Everything her sixteen year old self wanted with this man sitting next to her seems stupid.

"You alright?" Finn asks, pulling Rachel away from her thoughts. She wonders if he can tell there is something going on with her, actually she's hoping he can tell. It would make things so much easier if he could just see that what they thought was there wasn't any more.

"I'm fine. I swear." She told him, pushing an escaping strand of hair back behind her ear. "I just forgot to call Santana back this afternoon and I was wondering if she was home."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure her and Matt said they were wrapping presents tonight. You can probably give her a call now if you want." He offered her a goofy grin, and she knew that whatever he thought was wrong had flown out of his head.

"I think I might do that."

Rachel got up from the couch and headed towards the back of the house towards the kitchen. She looked at the walls as she walked, pictures off their high school friends covered them, the only smile that was missing was Noah's. She hated that. The way things had gone down with Finn and Puck after they had all graduated from Ohio State Finn had removed every piece of evidence that Puck had ever been present in their lives. Rachel had understood at first, but soon she missed the little things. That's when she had started realizing that whatever Finn and she had had was gone.

When Rachel reached the kitchen, she grabbed the phone off the wall and started to dial Santana's number, hoping that she would answer, she really needed to talk. The holidays were slowly beginning to get to her. After a few short rings someone answered on the other end.

"Hello?" Santana's voice filled Rachel's ears and she couldn't help but smile. This girl was her life line.

"Hey, San, sorry I didn't call you back earlier. You said you had something important to tell me." Rachel assumed it had something to do with Santana's latest semester of law school.

Santana smiled to herself and then looked over her shoulder to give Matt a wink. "I'm going to put you on speaker. Matt wants to tell you something."

"Ok." Rachel heard her voice shake.

"Hey, Rach." Matt's soothing voice flowed through the phone. "How's it going?"

"It's going fine, Matt. What do you need to tell me?"

"I met this guy today on the subway, huge fan of yours, wanted to know where you lived. So I gave him your address."

Rachel felt her heart rise in her throat. "You told someone where I lived? Oh God, Matt! What if he's a stalker? What am I going to do? Great! Now we're going to have to move. I was just getting comfortable here. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent neighborhood in Brooklyn? This is ridiculous!"

When she stopped ranting all she was greeted with was laughter coming from the other end of the phone.

"Rachel, relax." Santana told her while punching Matt in the arm. "Do you think Matt would be stupid enough to do that? Seriously. Look someone is coming to see you. I suggest that you make sure Finn doesn't answer the door."

At that second Rachel heard the doorbell ring. She hung up the phone quickly and raced towards the front door, before Finn could even get up off the couch. "I got it." She yelled to him.

As she opened the door her mouth dropped. There stood Noah Puckerman on her steps. Rachel was glad that the foyer of their home could not easily be seen from the living room. Finn would probably blow a gasket if he saw Puck standing there.

"Hi," she said in a quiet voice, trying to hide the excitement that was now coursing through her body. She knew she shouldn't be feeling like this with her fiancé sitting a few feet away but she didn't care.

"Who is it?" Finn asked still sitting on the couch in the living room.

Puck raised a finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. He turned around the stack of poster boards around in his hands so she could read what they said.

_Say it's Carolers_

He set the portable stereo he was holding in his one hand down on the ground and hit play. Christmas music filled the air around them.

"It's just Carolers. Finish watching your movie." Rachel said, trying not to give anything away.

Puck flashed Rachel a quick smile and winked at her as he moved the top poster board to reveal the next one's message.

_With any luck, by next year._

He moved onto the next one, revealing its message.

_I'll be going out with one of these girls…_

Rachel giggled. Of course Puck could never leave out the girls he wished to date. He moved the poster board to reveal a bunch of magazine cut outs of half naked models. She shook her head at him as moved onto the next.

_But for now let me say,_

Puck moved to the next one.

_Without hope, or agenda,_

And the next.

_Just because it's Hanukah_

_And there's no better time to tell the truth._

_To me you are perfect_

Rachel felt her heart soar as his eyes found hers. Puck smiled at her again, hoping she would understand exactly what he was trying to say.

_My stupid ass has loved you_

_Always._

_And my wasted heart will love you_

_Until you look like this…_

Puck moved the second to last poster board away to reveal a grotesque looking mummy, causing Rachel to almost lose it. She giggled into her hand as his eyes softened.

_Happy Hanukah._

"Happy Hanukah," Rachel whispered. She didn't know if she wanted to scream or cry. Only Noah Puckerman could ever pull these emotions out of her.

Puck gave her a quick smirk and a nod before he grabbed the stereo off of the steps and headed down them away from an awe struck Rachel standing at her door.

She didn't know what to do. Go after him? With Finn sitting right there?

Rachel closed the door and walked back into the house to find Finn asleep on the couch. She looked him over, and she knew right then and there she could never do this. She pulled her ring off her finger and gently set it down on the coffee table in front of her. Walking around to the couch, she bent down and placed a gentle kiss on Finn's forehead, causing him to stir. "I'm sorry." She whispered to him.

She moved towards the foyer again, grabbing her purse that contained her wallet, cell phone and keys off of the hook, along with her jacket. Opening the front door she braced herself and stepped out into the cold winter night, rushing off down the street to catch up with Puck.

"What are you doing?" Puck's voice came from behind her, causing Rachel to jump.

She turned around to face him. He was sitting at the bus stop at the end of her block.

"What am I doing?" Rachel asked. "What am I doing? What are you doing here?"

"I think I already answered that question." He stood up resting the poster boards and stereo down on the bench.

"Why now, Noah? Why? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

He kicked at a pile of snow on the side of the street. "Don't know, Rachel, never thought I was good enough for you."

"Not good enough for me? You are perfect for me. I've loved you since that time you kissed me at the homecoming game during our senior year of high school. You were the one that was always too stupid to realize it." Rachel crossed her arms over her chest, trying to keep warm.

Puck was a little thrown off by her forceful tone. "I didn't come here to fight with you, Rach. I just had to get that off my chest before you made a big mistake."

"What big mistake?" Rachel raised her hands to show him that there was no longer a ring on her finger.

Puck couldn't fight the smile that was growing on his face. He moved closer to her and brushed his fingers along her jaw. Rachel reached up and placed her hand over his and before she knew it she was pulling him closer. Soon her lips were pressed up against his and she hoped that she didn't explode.

When Puck finally pulled away he looked down to see Rachel with her eyes closed and a huge smile on her face.

"I'm staying with Matt and Santana, come with me."

Rachel opened her eyes and nodded at him, reaching to intertwine her fingers with his. They walked hand and hand down the street towards the nearest subway station that would take them into Manhattan with smiles on their faces.


End file.
